SERDANG, April 10 — Putrajaya has neglected the housing needs of middle-income groups amid efforts to address the need for affordable housing for low-income groups, a University Putra Malaysia (UPM) professor said today.

Head of UPM Housing Research Centre Prof Datuk Abang Abdullah Abang Ali said that while property developers cater to the needs of the high-income group, Putrajaya introduces housing initiatives for the low-income group.

But the middle-income group’s needs have been mostly ignored, he said.

“The work now is not the low-income people, they are being addressed quite well. It’s the middle-income people. Even if they graduate, husband and wife have an income, they may find houses beyond their reach,” he said, addressing the un-affordability of homes in Malaysia for both the lower- and middle-income group at a forum titled “Re-look at Living.”

“This is an issue because somehow the housing industry is more interested in the high-end, and the government is focused on the low-end. The middle-income group is left out,” he added.

The UPM professor said that one of the many reasons for this oversight is poor planning in the distribution and development of properties.

“The issue is of planning, out of half a million people nationwide in need of housing, we see only a small number are succeeding. And this is an issue of planning,” he said.

He added that although there have been many efforts to address the need to create affordable housing for low-income earners through public housing and housing loan schemes, such efforts should also be extended to the masses in the middle-income group.

“Revise the ceiling of low-cost houses, but I’m more concerned with the government at looking at more reasonable costs for the middle-income,” he said.

Efforts to ensure affordable houses are readily available have been proposed by the government, including the building of low-cost homes through PR1MA, as well as state governments’ own efforts much like Selangor’s recent pledge last year to build affordable homes not exceeding RM220,000 in locations close to public transportation hubs.

This comes after US-based urban development researcher Demographic said last October that Malaysia has a “severely unaffordable” residential homes market, with housing even more out of reach for its residents than Singapore, Japan and the United States.

Demographia’s report was cited in a report in Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper to highlight how many Malaysians continue to be locked out of the residential housing market despite the federal government’s attempt to help first-time house buyers.